drip systems – Hydroponic Economics

Have a Weak Drip System or Less Than Powerful Sprayers?

Before deciding your homemade drip system is non-functional, check your work. Did you plan the needed gallons per hour your pump would need to push water through the whole system? Water pumps are rated by GPH(Gallons per Hour). You will need to know the minimum GPH your drip system needs to pressurize the water and make it through your drip emitters.

New growers seem to back away from home made drip systems because they are unsure of the necessary parts. Drip irrigation kits are usually over priced and come with some pretty barebones parts. The kits may also come with a small reservoir, that you are required to use because the pump is attached to it. Avoid the woes of drip system kits by making your own irrigation system at home.

Home Drip System — Outdoor Drip System with a strong water pump at the heart of the reservoir.

Hydroponic shops carry all the parts you need to set up a custom drip system. Start with a plan. If you have not built your grow room yet, you will need to know the number of plants you plan on having and at least the distance the drip line will travel. It is important to know the distance of the drip line to calculate the power you need for your water pump.

To find out the needed GPH rating start with the length of tubing you are going to use. For every foot of tubing you use, regardless of size, subtract 1-2 GPH from the water pump’s rating. Check the packaging for the drip emitters you would like to use. The packaging should tell you the PSI rating. Take the PSI and multiply times the number of drippers. Subtract that number from the remaining GPH of the pump in question. If the number of GPH remaining is very low or negative, you need a stronger pump.

Calculating GPH for a Drip System: (2 GPH x 1 ft of tube) + (PSI rating of Drip Emitter x Number of Drip Emitters) = rough estimate of the necessary GPH. There are outside factors not mentioned in this equation. The number of connections the water has to travel through will affect the needed GPH. Bridged drip line connectors like tees and elbows can slow down your water. Be sure to wash your pump’s pre filter out during reservoir changes to ensure there is no blockage cutting down your GPH. Follow these simple guidelines to ensure you don’t buy an expensive water pump you don’t need or wind up with a less than functional drip system.

Top Feed — Strong water pumps can forcefully pump water out of open drip lines to feed even the most demanding plants.

Drip Systems: 5 Problems You Can Avoid

Drip system maintenance is key to running an efficient hydroponic drip system. Below are 5 problems to watch for in your drip system. Avoid these problems and you’ll be keeping your plants from automation gone wrong!

Hydroponic Water Pump Pre Filter — The foam filter inside of this water pump catches small particles before they have a chance to interrupt your drip system.

1.Drip Emitters – Clogged drip emitters are most likely the number one problem in drip systems. The best way to fix them is cut them off and try a fresh one.

2.Timer On/Off Switch – Have you ever turned the switch on your timer off so your drip system wouldn’t run during a reservoir change? Always double check to make sure that switch is back to ON when you are done.
3. Timer Malfunction – Timers can shut off for various reasons: water damage, battery or power failure, clock malfunction.
4. Reservoir Levels – Reservoir changes are necessary for productive hydroponic gardens. Evaporation and usage will drain your reservoir. When reservoir water evaporates, the nutrients and salts remain in the water. The extra salts create a higher ppm nutrient solution. Add plain or low ppm nutrient solution to get the levels back to where you want them.
5. Avoid Over Watering – Don’t run your drip system intervals for too long. Start with small intervals and increase or decrease frequency depending on your plant’s performance. It may take them a few days to react to changes so be patient.

Functioning Home Made Drip System — Both drippers are problem free!

Did you know you can buy and read customer reviews for Drip Emitters on Amazon? Check it out here.

How Often Should You Change Your Water Reservoir?

QUICK ANSWER : Every Seven Days

Longer Answer: When you are trying to decide when to change your nutrient reservoir in your hydroponic recirculation system, there are a few things to consider. The size of your reservoir, the amount of nutrients remaining in the solution, ph, and how clean the water is. If your water looks gross, it probably is gross. Gross water = Gross plants. Gross deserves a capital G for that equation.

The bigger your reservoir the further you can go between res changes(Res change is short for water/nutrient reservoir change ). Big reservoirs may be more forgiving then a small reservoir. Small reservoirs may change by hundreds of ppm in a single day. Hydroponic systems require close monitoring of nutrient levels to avoid burning plants. If your reservoir loses water to evaporation make sure to top it off with plain water or a very low ppm solution. Res changes mostly apply to recirculating systems. Non-recirculating or “run to waste” hydroponic systems only require you to change the solution every two weeks. The nutrient solution stays clean and the PH is maintained in a non-recirculating system. The most important part of a good hydroponic system is a clean nutrient reservoir.

Clean Nutrient Reservoir — A clean nutrient reservoir loaded with Earth Juice Bloom and Azamax

Introduction to Drip Systems

Drip systems are an extremely important component to any top level gardener using soil or top feed systems. Drip systems can be used outdoors to irrigate small or large gardens and lawns. They are a great investment for indoor gardeners because it takes the manual labor out of watering and feeding. It also benefits your plants by ensuring they receive water every day in proper amounts. The extra time will allow you to create a bigger garden or simply spend less time with your garden for the same benefits. Indoor gardens must consider the gardener and the plants needs because the relationship is dependent on each other. If someone feels they are spending too much time in the garden for little reward they may be discouraged and give up the greener lifestyle.

Submersible pumps like this one have rubber suction feet to stick to the bottom of your water or nutrient reservoir I’ll start by explaining the heart of the drip system. The most expensive part of your drip system is the water pump. There are submersible and non-submersible water pumps. Small gardens and reservoirs will usually use a submersible pump. If you are setting up your first drip system a small submersible pump should be enough. Water pumps in the US are rated by Gallons Per Hour(GPH). The GPH rating of your water pump will come into play when you are deciding what size water pump you will need. I’ll explain how to calculate the necessary GPH for your drip system in a later article. The thick blue storage tote is the container or reservoir for the water. Creativity might be handy when deciding what to use for a water reservoir. If you are at all concerned about your health, and you most likely are if you have decided to grow your own food, you should try to stick to food grade plastics for all the parts in your garden setup. You can buy reservoirs at hydroponic shops, but they can have a high ticket. It is easy to find something around the house or at local department stores to use as a reservoir. You can also go to US Plastics to order food grade plastic. A bigger reservoir can mean a longer span in between reservoir changes and topping off with water to compensate for evaporation. I always get reservoirs with lids or make my own. Lids will help to prevent algae from growing in your water. It can also keep pests and other contaminates out of your solution. The next important piece of the drip system is the air pump. The air pump brings fresh oxygen from the room through an air tube and out of a submerged air stone. The air stone will help to keep the reservoir full of oxygen. The water will bubble and agitate the water so it does not become stagnant. Drill a hole through the reservoir wall towards the top so you can put tubes and cords through it. If you are making a home made drip system, you will need 1/2″ tubing for the water to transfer from your submersible pump through the drip lines. Use a hole puncher made for drip lines to poke perfect holes in the 1/2″ tubing. The holes are for connectors to be put in to make bridges between 1/2″ tubing and 1/4″ tubing. Most drippers connect to 1/4″ tubing. The great thing about homemade drip systems is you can customize them to your hydroponic setup. No matter what type of garden you have, a drip system should be your next upgrade. If you already have a drip system than be sure to watch for the upcoming articles about building bigger and more advanced drip and top feed systems. The air pump delivers fresh oxygen via air tubing to the water or nutrient reservoir You can get all sorts of connectors to for the tubing so anything is possible. When the 1/4″ tubing is secured to the connectors attached to your 1/2″ tubing you are ready to add drip emitters, drip lines, or sprayers. Whatever you choose as your water delivery method, make sure there is somewhere for it to drain off. In recirculating systems the run off goes back into the water reservoir to be used again. It’s more economical this way for water and nutrients if you are using them. The other option is a run to waste option. I have also put a guide up for building a simple run off table. Its a very simple design that anyone can build. Homemade hydroponics can be easy with the right knowledge and the right set of tools. Refer to the pictures below for more details and if you would like to know more about drip hydroponics check back in the next few weeks to get some in depth knowledge. Sign up for the RSS to get the articles sent to your favorite feed reader or email address! Inline drippers have 1/4" tubing on both ends so the drip line can continue running to the final destination. The Red dripper will drop 1/2 gallon of water per hour into the medium while the pump is on. The open ended 1/4″ tubing will deliver the most water per hour, but small pumps have a hard time holding a steady stream for multiple 1/4″ tubes. Distance also slows down the performance of the pump
: Stakes are used to hold the drip lines in place. Make sure the medium is secure around the stakes. Try not to damage roots when placing stakes in growing medium.

Soil-less Growing – Happy Medium

Soil-less growing is the alternative to growing in soil or hydroponics. Some soil-less grow systems could be considered hydroponic. An example would be a top feed system in rockwool cubes placed on rockwool slabs. I would also consider a container plant using hydro clay as the medium would be a soil-less grow. These systems can be easily maintained using a water pump to feed water and nutrients to each container or plant.

There are a multitude of reasons to choose a soil-less grow over a soil grow and vice versa. First, soil can be VERY messy. Accidentally knocking over a container that is pre-filled with dirt for a fresh transplant costs minutes of cleaning and a loss of soil. You can also contaminate your soil with whats on the floor if you try to put it back in the container. Soil is also a nesting haven for a lot of different bugs like gnats and crawling insects. Gnat nests buried in soil can be hazardous to your plants. The bugs can eat at the roots of your plants without you even knowing.

Simply switching the growing substrate to hydroclay or hydrorocks can help to control the problem. There are a wide variety of mediums to choose from when growing soil-less. There are also rockwool grow cubes, coco coir, and perilite. You can always mix a variety of things to create your own soil-less mix to create the environment you want for your plants root system.